Rescue workers install a screen on the spot where a human shape was seen under a white blanket following a shooting in Utrecht, Netherlands, Monday, March 18, 2019. Police in the central Dutch city of Utrecht say on Twitter that “multiple” people have been injured as a result of a shooting in a tram in a residential neighborhood.

UTRECHT, Netherlands — Dutch police were hunting down a suspect after a shooting Monday on a tram in the central Dutch city of Utrecht that left three people dead and nine people injured.

Authorities immediately raised the terror alert for the area to the maximum level and said they are considering the possibility of a “terrorist motive” in the attack. Dutch military police went on extra alert at Dutch airports and at key buildings in the country as the Utrecht manhunt took place.

The mayor of the Dutch city of Utrecht says that a “terror motive” is the most plausible option. Jan van Zanen also said that three of the nine were seriously wounded.

Van Zanen said that “we cannot exclude, even stronger, we assume a terror motive. Likely there is one attacker, but there could be more.”

A few hours after the shooting, Utrecht police released a photo of a 37-year-old man born in Turkey who they said was “associated with the incident.” The photo showed a bearded man on board a tram, dressed in a dark blue hooded top.

Police warned citizens not to approach the man, whom they identified as Gokman Tanis, but call authorities instead.

Police, including heavily armed officers, flooded the area after the shooting Monday morning on a tram at a busy traffic intersection in a residential neighborhood. They later erected a white tent over an area where a body appeared to be lying next to the tram. Authorities didn’t say exactly how many people were injured.

Utrecht police said trauma helicopters were sent to the scene and appealed to the public to stay away. Heavily armed anti-terror officers gathered in front of an apartment block close to the scene.

“Our nation was hit by an attack in Utrecht,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said. He said that “a terror motive is not excluded.”

Rutte said that, throughout the country, “there is a mix of disbelief and disgust.”

“If it is a terror attack then we have only one answer: our nation, democracy must be stronger that fanaticism and violence,” he added.

Police spokesman Bernhard Jens said one possibility “is that the person fled by car.” He did not rule out the possibility that more than one shooter was involved.

The Netherlands’ anti-terror coordinator raised the threat alert to its highest level around Utrecht, a city of nearly 350,000 people. Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said the “threat level has gone to 5, exclusively for the Utrecht province.”

Dutch political parties halted campaigning ahead of provincial elections scheduled for Wednesday that will also determine the makeup of the Dutch parliament’s upper house.

In neighboring Germany, police said they had stepped up surveillance of the Dutch border. Heinrich Onstein, a spokesman for federal police in North Rhine-Westphalia state, said additional officers had been detailed to watch not only major highways, but also minor crossings and railway routes.

German authorities were initially told to look out for a red Renault Clio compact sedan, but were later informed it had been found abandoned in Utrecht, Onstein said.

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